SS13-14: Sordo and Kubica top times

Dani Sordo and Robert Kubica shared fastest times through Saturday morning’s final two stages at Guanajuato Rally Mexico, but Sébastien Ogier held a comfortable lead at the midpoint of the third day.

Sordo won the live TV El Brinco stage in his Hyundai i20 before Pole Kubica topped the timesheets in the short León street stage in a Ford Fiesta RS. “I pushed really hard,” said the Spaniard, who claimed the highest average speed so far at 105.36kph.

Ogier was second in both tests in his Volkswagen Polo R and led Mads Østberg by 1min 08.3sec as drivers entered service.

“The pressure is not off, it’s just a bit different now because Jari-Matti’s mistake has changed our philosophy. Now we have to control the lead and stay out of trouble which isn’t an easy job. The temperatures will be very high this afternoon, which is a big challenge for the car,” he said.

Østberg dropped 15sec after spinning his DS 3 in El Brinco. “I think I hit something on the long stage and that damaged my right front suspension. The front end was very nervous from there on. Andreas is close behind but I’m not too worried,” he said.

Andreas Mikkelsen is 9.7sec adrift in his Volkswagen Polo R, having extended his advantage over fourth-placed Elfyn Evans to 31.9sec.

“I feel I’m too hesitant in places and we’ve been losing more time than we would like. I don’t think we need to change anything, we just need to concentrate on being clean because there are still a lot of people having problems out there,” said Evans.

Both Hayden Paddon and Kris Meeke reported brake problems, while Thierry Neuville felt the gearbox in his i20 was not working properly.